While some Fourth of July celebrations have been canceled, numerous cities and venues throughout Santa Clara County are going all out with festivities and fireworks. There are eight light shows across the county ready to dazzle residents. San Jose is hosting the city’s first drone show at Lake Cunningham. The city had planned to shoot...
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San Jose fire to resume drug oversight program after tampering
San Jose leaders are temporarily reinstating a drug oversight program they scrapped while firefighter medics internally flagged narcotics thefts and patient exposure to tampered morphine. The City Council on Tuesday approved the revival of San Jose’s paramedic coordinator program, known as Med 30, with new funding for seven months — starting in December — as...
San Jose fire hid drug tampering, patient exposure
San Jose firefighters raised internal alarms in 2023 about addictive painkillers that went missing from their paramedic drug inventories, and gave morphine from tampered vials to patients with traumatic injuries, according to email records obtained by San José Spotlight. The emails indicate Fire Chief Robert Sapien and city leaders knew about a firefighter drug theft...
San Jose fire chief in hot seat over drug oversight failures
To save money, San Jose leaders cut a critical fire department program last year that tracked the storage of addictive painkillers for cross-trained firefighter paramedics. Nine months later, the theft of opioids from nearly two dozen fire stations has raised concerns that patients in serious pain received tampered drugs. San Jose Fire Fighters Local 230, the...
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San Jose police and fire unions want reserve funds to fill vacancies
Union leaders representing hundreds of San Jose police officers, firefighters and other workers said they shouldn’t be dealing with service and staffing cuts when the city has millions in reserve funds. Leaders with the San Jose Police Officers’ Association and San Jose Fire Fighters Local 230 are arguing the city has the necessary funding to...
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UPDATE: San Jose officials approve charging first responder fee
City leaders have approved a fee program allowing the San Jose Fire Department’s emergency medical services to collect payments from people they treat. Fire Chief Robert Sapien said San Jose needs to join the 23 fire agencies across California that already have first responder fees for people using the fire department’s emergency medical services. While...
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San Jose firefighters take part in cancer research after initial denial
San Jose said no to letting its firefighters participate in a state-funded cancer prevention and research program — until pressure forced the city to reverse course. Thirteen state legislators advocated for San Jose firefighters in a Feb. 14 letter to participate in the program that wouldn’t cost the city a dime. San Jose was awarded...
San Jose tackles thousands of homeless camp fires
Fires emanating from San Jose’s homeless encampments far outnumber those coming from homes and businesses, leaving nearby residents scared for their safety and health. Over the past year thousands of non-structural fires have been sparked by homeless camps, causing toxic fumes and safety problems for people and property. Jerry May, president of the San Jose Fire...